Source: TUFTS UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
A WORKSHOP TO EXPLORE THE EXPANSION OF DOLLAR STORES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1028386
Grant No.
2022-67023-36955
Cumulative Award Amt.
$50,000.00
Proposal No.
2021-13061
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Feb 1, 2022
Project End Date
Jan 31, 2024
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[A1641]- Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities: Markets and Trade
Recipient Organization
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
200 WESTBORO ROAD
N. GRAFTON,MA 01536
Performing Department
Agriculture, Food & Environ
Non Technical Summary
Dollar stores have existed for nearly 70 years but first gained nationwide popularity in the 1990s (Shrestha, 2016). The impact of the continued expansion of dollar stores on food purchasing patterns remains unclear. Media reports have speculated that dollar store growth may challenge and force out local grocers through competitive pricing (Meyersohn, 2019); however, dollar stores may also fill food voids where local grocers do not have enough business to maintain a store (Petenko, 2019). Moreover, some dollar stores began offering perishable food items at the turn of the 21st century to help fill the food gap (Shrestha, 2016). Despite their growing importance for the American food consumer, relatively little scholarship exists on dollar stores and the effect they have on the communities they enter. There is a need to better understand the implications of dollar stores for food access, the dietary health of rural and underserved communities, and dollar stores' role in the economic well-being of the communities in which they are located.We propose to hold a two-day workshop in Boston, MA in June of 2022 to bring together leading economic, retail, public health, and nutrition researchers to address these issues. We will invite approximately 50-60 researchers and graduate students to attend the workshop. The overall goal is to foster collaboration between economists, food retail, and public health researchers to set collectively the research priorities that will lead to a better understanding of the manner in which dollar stores shape the food retail landscape, diets, and well-being.
Animal Health Component
90%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
90%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6046110301025%
6076110301025%
7036010101025%
7046099101025%
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to foster collaboration among economists, food retail, nutrition and public health researchers to collectively review and frame the research priorities that will lead to a firmer understanding of the manner in which dollar stores shape the food retail landscape.To achieve the overall goal, we propose to hold a two-day workshop in Boston, MA in June 2022 that will help researchers reach the following three objectives:To identify the most pressing research questions regarding the role of dollar stores in food access, dietary quality, and community livelihoods;To better understand the existing data sources available that aid in dollar store research; andTo foster interdisciplinary collaboration for future research.
Project Methods
Structure of eventWe propose a two-day program for our workshop. On day one we will begin the day with an Opening Session, during which Drs. Cash and Feng will welcome attendees and will provide an overview of the rise of dollar stores and the questions their expansion raises. The day will continue with four 75-minute research panels, during which attendees selected by the scientific committee (through a call-for-abstract process, detailed on page 11) will present on their findings on issues around dollar stores. Each session will conclude with an invitation to all attendees to provide fast feedback in the form of keywords and comments collected through an online platform such as Poll Everywhere; this feedback will be used to inform the facilitated conversations scheduled for the second day.Day one of the workshop will also include a poster presentation and networking session which will allow a larger group of people to share any work related to dollar stores they have conducted or are conducting. The posters will be left up for observation for the remainder of the workshop following the presentation session. Electronic copies of research posters will also be made available to all workshop attendees.On day two, attendees will participate in a series of three facilitated conversations designed to advance the quality and nature of research on dollar stores. These sessions will explore the themes introduced on day one, using the feedback collected at the end of each research session as starting point for conversation. Expert facilitators from the Tufts Technology Services Design Practice will moderate these sessions to ensure that discussions stay on-topic and lead to high-quality, shareable outputs that can be used both by workshop participants and communicated to others.Method of invitationWe will invite participants through an open call for selected presentations and attendees. We will distribute this call through several established e-lists that target public health researchers and applied economists with relevant interests. We will share information on the workshop through the following Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) e-lists: Food and Agricultural Marketing Policy Section (FAMPS), Food Safety and Nutrition (FSN), Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics (CWAE), and Committee on the Opportunities and Status of Blacks in Agricultural Economics (COSBAE). We will also share information on the workshop through the American Public Health Association's (APHA) Food and Nutrition Section. We will additionally send information on the workshop to the Healthy Eating Research (HER) NORPREN Healthy Food Retail Work Group and the American Marketing Association Marketing and Public Policy (MPPC) group.We will also work with the Communications & Web Strategies Department at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy to advertise the event through creation of a logo and a dedicated webpage. The Friedman School will also leverage its social media channels to advertise the workshop. We will also ask Tufts University and other colleagues to distribute news of the workshop within the academic departments of applied economics, public health, and other related fields as well as to amplify on social media.In addition, through the several ERS partnerships for dollar store research that currently exist and a recently completed systematic review, we have compiled a list of researchers who will be personally invited to apply to attend and/or present at the workshop.

Progress 02/01/22 to 01/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The purpose was to convene a broadly interdisciplinary group of researchers and experts from government and academia at the 2-day Food Access at Dollar Stores (FADS) workshop, held in Boston, MA in 2022. The event brought together economists, social scientists, public health researchers and advocates to discuss the concerns and research questions raised by the growth of dollar stores, and their increased role in food retail and access.Establishing robust scientific baselines may inform public policy to support low-income Americans and future inquiry into this expanding retail category. Changes/Problems:Due to the rapidly evolving nature of dollar stores, minor changes in dissemination strategy came up because of opportunities that arose.The week of the workshop, we learned that several USDA/ERS employees who were meant to be part of the program (including in presenting roles) were not allowed to attend because of Covid-19 related travel restriction changes. However, through the implementation of our post-workshop survey, those unable to attend still shared their thoughts andparticipated in the collaborative sharing of knowledge related to dollar stores in their survey responses. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Workshop participants learned quite a bit about different methodoligies, datasets, tools, and current research taking place related to dollar stores. More than half of the participants were early career researchers or graduate students, and using the conference grant funding to pay for housing for all participants was a model that was successful in making this workshop accessible to these participants. Morever, several student volunteers from Tufts were able to attend by assisting with logistics and notetaking at the workshop. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The primary tool for dissemination was the workshop itself, bringing together 59 workshop attendees interested in dollar stores and their role in food access, including economists, public health researchers, geographers, and other social scientists. The current conference paper that is under review will provide a synopsis of key findings and takeaways from the collaborative workshop environment held in 2022. Additionally, a variety of subsequent webinars and panel discussions have provided further sharing of information. These dissemination activities have been concurrentwith the research projects of others developed from the conference(i.e., Dr. Sara John and Dr. Lauren Chenarides). Collaborators from the conference have been public voices to further expand the dissemenation oftranslational materials. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. To identify the most pressing research questions regarding the role of dollar stores in food access, dietary quality, and community livelihoods. Across the two-day workshop, attendees were engaged in collectively developing an "investigatory landscape" of research priorities including unaddressed research questions, existing and needed data sources, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. Engagement took place in two phases, using a model of divergent and convergent ideation adapted from Design Thinking frameworks . Day one consists of four panels, regulation, racial equity, community experience & wellbeing. Following each panel discussion, attendees were asked to respond to three prompt questions: · What are the most important unaddressed research questions that come to mind in relation to this panel discussion? · What new data sources will be needed to expand on the work described in this session? · What research disciplines will need to collaborate to make progress in this session's topic areas? Responses to the questions were gathered using PollEverywhere, a lightweight real-time survey tool. Over 190 responses were received (100+ research questions, 60+ data source needs, and 30+ research disciplines) on the first day. Responses were organized into themes by facilitators and then presented to attendees for consideration on day two in moderated plenary discussion sessions. These discussions aimed to further develop and refine the identified research priorities and needs. Engagement on day two culminated in a plenary discussion that asked attendees to organize the responses into five topics, mirroring the topics of the panel discussions on day one. Attendees were asked to further detail each topic by identifying a set of key enablers and barriers to collaboration. The organizing committee captured research priority responses and topics via poll and discussion during the two-day workshop and distributed to attendees for ranking and prioritization. We implemented a post-workshop survey following a modified Delphi approach in November 2022 through January 2023. The Delphi method is an effective tool to anonymously elicit prioritization of research areas from a group of experts. The method poses questions to experts individually over multiple rounds, seeking to develop a reliable consensus. Across the nine broad categories of unaddressed research areas (local community impacts, health/nutrition impacts, store offerings/locations, dollar store vs. other food sources, employees/employment, corporate distribution/strategy/marketing, system issues such as racism, poverty, and food access, shoppers/customers, and policy/programs), the attendees gave certain topics and potential research questions greater prioritity. Research focused on local community impacts, assessment of policy and programs, and dollar store employee wage received the strongest prioritization from the panel of experts. 2. To better understand the existing data sources available that aid in dollar store research During day one of theworkshop, over 60 PollEverywhere responses indicatedthe need fordata sources related to dollar stores.Through presenations ofresearch and subsequent discussions, all of the workshop particpants became better familiarized with the dollar store data sources that could be used (i.e.,NEMS, NHANES, IRI and Nielsen store scanner and consumer (household) scanner data systems). 3. To foster interdisciplinary collaboration for future research The conference participants voiced excitement at the prospect of this shared research focus and emphasized the need for a greater evidence base and literature surrounding dollar stores. The modified Delphi approach following the FADS workshop provides a clear roadmap for research priorities in the fields of economics, nutrition, and public health focused on dollar stores. A major goal of the FADS workshop was to serve as a catalyst for this fledgling research topic and spark interdisciplinary assessments of dollar stores' role in the changing United States food retail landscape. By combining valuable in-person discussion to capture real-time responses and challenges to proposed research and following with a modified Delphi survey, the workshop met its goals in connecting researchers on this topic to foster interdisciplinary collaboration for future research. Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Healthy Eating Research (HER) NOPREN network had a dollar store working group that started shortly after our conference and was active through early 2024. Those collaborative networks started at our workshop and has resulted in new research collaborations and funding proposals to other funders.Folks that met at the conference have been collaborating andput in funding proposals for various future dollar store projects.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Food Access at Dollar Stores and its Implications for Public Health: Report of a Workshop on Identifying Research Priorities


Progress 02/01/22 to 01/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes economists, food retailers, public health professionals, and nutrition researchers to address the issues of dollar store expansion on food purchasing patterns. To deliver and share our knowledge, a two-day workshop was hosted on Food Access at Dollar Stores and Its Implications for Public Health to approximately 60 attendees including economists, public health and nutrition researchers, activists and graduate students at the Friedman School of Nutrition Scienc and Policy at Tufts University. A webinar was also given for the Council on Food, Agriculture, & Resource Ecomomics (C-FARE) on what we know regarding the healthfulness of foods purchased at dollar stores from 2008-2020, which was given to policymakers, Congressional staff, stakeholders, and federal administrative leaders. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Several professional development activities were provided through participation in both the hosted worskhopand in indivudal presentations at other conferences. We had 3 masters level research assistants working with us on translational activities regarding dollar store research: Charlotte Blumenthal, Hailey Fromkin, and Shannon Fain. The workshop included research from both PhD level and graduate level students. Doctorate level presenters atthe workshop included Erik James (Wharton School of the University of Pennyslvania), Chuck Grigsby (University of Florida), Alexandra Schmall (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), and Fangruo Zhou (Tufts University). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To disseminate our workshops and papers to groups of interest, our workshops were available both in person and online. The C-FARE dollar store webinarwas attended by 94 individuals, the TIGOR presentation and webinar was attended by 43 individuals online and approximately 15 individuals in person. The FADS Workshop on Food Access at Dollar Stores and Its Implications for Public Health was attended by approximately 60 indivudals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our plan during the next period to accomplish our goals and objectives include completing the Food Access at Dollar Stores Workshop report and disseminateing the workshop video to all interested researchers, policymakers, students, and professionals.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have accomplished our overarching goal of successfully hosting the workshop on June 3rd and 4th, 2022. Over 60 economiists, nutrition professoinals, and public health researchers came together for this even, in which all three specific goals (identify the most pressing research questions, better understand available data sources, and fostering interdisciplinary research) were addressed. In our subsequent workshop report (in preparation for submission), we have summarized unaddressed questions from our workshop falling under several key themes: local and community impacts;health and nutrition impacts;policies and programs;systematic issues (racism, poverty, and food access);store offerings and locations;shoppers and customers;employers/employment; corporate distributions, strategy, and marketing; and dollar stores vs. other food sources. We have also summarized the available data sources and data gaps (under the categories of regulation, racial equity, community experience, and wellbeing); and summarized the role of advocacy. Outcomes of our workshops highlighted the need for futher research to answer unaddressed research questions on dollar stores. Our workshops identified that health/nutrition impacts had the highest average, followed by local/community impacts, and policy/programs. Based on these outcomes, we are continuing to develop research and collaborate with institutions throughout the United States to investigate the impact of dollar stores on diet quality and health status.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Feng W, Page ET, Cash SB. Dollar Stores and Food Access for Rural Households in the United States, 2008?2020. Am J Public Health. 2023 Mar;113(3):331-336. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307193. Epub 2023 Jan 19. PMID: 36657091; PMCID: PMC9932391. *note, this is a related publication; but media coverage acknowledged the workshop
  • Type: Other Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: "A Summary Report of the FADS Workshop on Food Access at Dollar Stores (FADS) and its Implications for Public Health
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: "A Workshop to Explore the Expansion of Dollar Stores and its Implications for Public Health"
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: C-FARE Dollar Store Webinar, March 31, 2023, "The Healthfulness of Foods Purchased at Dollar Stores, 2008-2020"
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Tufts Institute for Global Obesity Research Presentation, "Unpacking the Role of Dollar Stores on Food Access and Obesity Inequities in the United States"
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Tufts Research on Food Access at Dollar Stores Website: https://sites.tufts.edu/dollarstores/